Dead Souls, vol. I (1842)

 

Chapter 1 (pp. 3-15) Chichikov’s Arrival in the Provincial Town of N.


(pp. 3-6) Opening Moments: QUOTE

  • A britzka of a smallish sort arrives carrying a gentleman of a middling sort, hard to identify because he is so ‘decidedly not special’.
  • Two muzhiks, whom we will never meet again, decide that, speaking hypothetically,  the carriage’s wheels might make it to Moscow but not to Kazan.
  • A young man in white twill trousers and tailcoat, whom we will never hear from or see again, passes by, his shirt fastened by a Tula pin shaped like a bronze pistol

 

The inn where Chichikov will stay is familiar to all travelers in the Russian provinces: with cockroaches and eavesdroppers behind interior doors, which have wooden trunks and chests shoved in front of them. Shops line the front façade of the building selling horse collars, ropes and pretzels, and in the end corner shop stands a seller of hot punch who is indistinguishable from his copper red samovar standing next to him.

 

Petrushka, the lackey, (his overcoat carries a terrible stench) and Selifan, the coachman,  carry in the master’s luggage: a trunk and a curious small mahogany chest inlaid with Karelian birch. (QUOTE) Petrushka crawls into his closet and closes the door.

 

The common rooms of the inn are similarly known to every traveler: greasy walls, smoky ceilings, sooty chandeliers that jangle, tea cups ready to fly off trays like birds, a painting of a nymph with enormous breasts behind the bar.

 

The gentleman, still unidentified, enters the dining area, wearing a rainbow hued scarf. He proceeds to politely question the waiter about all the local nobles and merchants and quickly obtains the low down on every important person in town. He is particularly interested in the landowners. He also inquires about whether there have been any epidemics in the province recently. He finallyidentifies himself  with his card: “Collegiate Councilor Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, landowner, in private business. (Chichikov: His name in Russian sounds like birds chirping or scissors snipping; it is a flighty and frivolous name for such a plump and practical person.)

 

(pp. 7-8) After stuffing himself full of 'cabbage soup with puff pastries, brains and peas, sausages and cabbage, roast poulard , pickles and eternal sweet puff pastries', Chichikov decides to stroll the streets, taking in the town. It is, of course, an  utterly typical provincial town:

  • The houses seem lost amid the street.Tables are standing in the street.
  • The signboards before shops are washed out by the rain. On one sign, billiard players aim cues while dancing an entrechat with legs askew. In another, an eatery is identified by a fish stuck with a fork. (7) (QUOTE)
  • The town’s trees are sickly and skinny, but a prominent plaque celebrates the town's recent beautification project.
  • chichikov rears off a playbill attached to a post and takes it home with him where he reads avidly about the actors and the various parts they play. He puts the playbill in his little chest.

 

(pp. 8-9) Chichikov takes himself directly to the governor’s office where he introduces himself. The governor greets him decked out in his medals. (In passing we  learn that the governor enjoys doing embroidery!) Chichikov also visits the governor, the vice governor, the prosecutor, the head magistrate, the police chief, the tax farmer, the superintendent of factories, the head of the board of health, and the town architect. Everywhere he goes, he flatters each and every official, even mistakenly using the higher form of address, saying ‘Your Excellency’ even when there is no call.

 

Chichikov refers to himself as an insignificant worm, hardened by fate, and with many enemies. When he is surprised or excited he will frequently exclaim, "The Devil knows!" (He mentions that he has even considered suicide! How fashionable and mysterious!) He is promptly invited to the governor’s party that night.


Before heading to the party Chichikov spends hours in front of his mirro, rubbing his plump face with soap, then buffing his fat cheeks so that the skin shines. He plucks nose hairs from his nostrils, and then dons a cranberry-olored tailcoat with flecks. (10)

 

(pp. 10- 12) The governor’s mansion is lit up for the ball. There are carriages with lanterns, gendarmes, postilions, and candles. Ladies flit about in gowns, and men in formal attire flit about them like flies feeding on a gleaming white sugarloaf. (QUOTE p. 10) (See "The Nose")

 

Chichikov does not pursue the ladies for dances like the slim ones do. Instead, he hangs out with the fat ones ‘who know better how to handle affairs of the world’. He lingers near the card table where the prosecutor and the post master are playing. They call out ridiculous names for various the suits of various cards. "Go you old granny!" or "I'll give it to him in the whiskers! The whiskers!" or "Spadillos! Spadikins! Spadixies!"  (The postmaster utters the most violent ejaculations at the cards as he gambles.)Chichikov chats with the Head Magistrate, the affable Manilov, and the clumsy looking Sobakevich. Chichikov offers around his enameled silver snuffbox which has vilet blossoms within to scent the snuff. 

 

(pp. 13-16) The next day Chichikov meets with the Police Chief and, at cards that night, with Nozdryev.

By the following day, Chichikov has completed making his first impression by expressing impressive ideas about every topic of interest to the local nobility, which include horse breeding, fine dogs, court cases, billiards, distilling spirits, and customs supervisors.

 

 

Chapter 2 (pp. 16-36) The Visit to Manilovka

 

Chichikov decides to visit the landowners Manilov and Sobakevich.

 

The narrator decides that he is supposed to describe Chichikov’s servants. He begins with Petrushka, the lackey, who loves to read, or rather loves the process of reading but could not care less what he is reading, which he largely ignores. And then there is Petrushka’s peculiar smell. The narrator begins to describe Selifan, the coachman, but then decides not to bother. We Russians really only concern ourselves with people in the ranks just ahead of us. QUOTE 17

 

Driving out of town in the britzka, ‘all sorts of stuff and nonsense…began scrawling itself along both sides of the road’ (18): villages resembling old stacks of firewood, houses with calves or sows peeking out of the lower windows. QUOTE 18-19


In the village of Manilovka, the master’s house is dilapidated in the English style with a scummy pond and more than 200 grey log cottages.


The weather is 'neither bright nor gloomy', the sky's light grey color... like on the uniform of garrison soldiers... unsober on Sundays... " A cock runs around outside the main house... his head has been pecked right to the brain by other cocks in the well known business of philandering..." (20)

 

Manilov, the master himself, greets Chichikov in his green shaloon frockcoat. What is he like? His name means ‘to lure or beckon’. Like everything in Russia, he is hard to describe. “50-50.” His ‘face not lacking in agreeableness… but [with] too much sugar in it.” He offers a good first impression before you feel deadly boredom when he launches into discussion of borzoi hounds, music and hearty meals.. flattering higher ranks, something…” Manilov runs the whole estate by saying, “Yes, not bad,” to every suggestion. He cooks up idiot projects which never get started or if they do, never get completed. The bridge across his pond (with shops), the book left marked at pg. 14, one beautifully re-uphlostered chair, a single beautiful candlestick.  QUOTE 21-22 His relationship with his wife is all tidbit presents, sweet sayings, and big kisses. She is educated ala boarding school: sewing, piano and French. (23)

 

When they prepare to go through the front door, Chichikov and Manilov do the old vaudeville routine: “No, after you.” Manilov describes Chichikov's  visit as 'a heart’s feast' for him.  Even Chichikov is slightly sickened by his host’s syrupy solicitude, but he matches Manilov in flowery compliments. The two move on to salute ad nauseum not only the local governor but everyone in his administration. “And how well he embroiders."  (25)

 

Manilov waxes philosophical about the joys of friendship, a spiritual delight. He says that he longs for a friend with whom he can share his deep thoughts about life and love.  QUOTE 26

 

Dinner begins with inedible cabbage soup. At the table the little boys, Themosticles and Alkides , run their noses and bite each others’ ears to their tutor's chagrin.

 

After such repletion, the gentlemen retire to the study, where the windowsills are curiously covered with tobacco ash arranged in rows, from Manilov's chibouk. (29) There Chichikov finally broaches business: how many of his serfs have died since the most recent census? QUOTE 31 The farm’s steward is summoned (his personal biography is skipped: we can conclude that it is typical.) How many dead souls? “Exactly, quite a lot.”

 

When Maniov hears Chichikov’s proposal to buy his dead peasants, he drops his long stemmed chibouk on the floor. Is he mad? The Devil knows. Chichikov argues that these peasants are not alive in reality. They are alive ‘with respect to the legal form.’ Manilov begins sucking so hard on  the chibouk that it begins wheezing like a bassoon. But Chichikov insists that it is all legal:  “I stand mute before the law.”

 

Once Manilov has decided to please his new friend by conceding to this strange request, he refuses to be paid anything. He even demands to pay all legal fees. Chichikov is ecstatic, ‘nearly leaping like a goat’. He hurries Manilov along by volunteering  to draw up the deed of purchase himself!

 

Manilov then muses about how nice it would be if Chichikov could move in with him so that they could be friends everyday, but Chichikov insists he must depart. As his new friend rides off, Manilov dreams of spending more time with this most admirable fellow but then is disturbed again by his strange request.

 

Chapter 3 (pp. 37-58) The Widow Korobochka or an Authentic Russian Estate

 

As Chichikov rolls away from Manilov’s estate, he agreeably considers speculations and estimates and smiles contentedly.


Selifan's Universe: Heading for Sobakavitch's estate,  Selifan,who is in his cups, gets totally lost because instead of minding the directions, he is talking to his horses and whipping them for 'their pleasure', particularly that dapple grey outrider who is acting like a German pantaloon and refusing to do his duty. Selifan  muses about the joys of socializing with 'good' people and winds up in such remote and abstract speculations that he is completely oblivious to a thunderhead which looms before him and then suddenly breaks. [Here we have again Akaky walking down a street, buildings shaped like Cyrillic letters,  connected to reality by only the most tenuous string,  then stumbling into a horse's face.] In the pouring rain, Selifan tips over the britzka sending Chichikov sprawling in the mud. Chichikov threatens Selifan with a whipping, and Selifan reconciles himself to his fate, “If it’s a whipping, it’s a whipping.” The two take refuge at an estate where dogs howl at them as they pound at the door. An old woman answers their knocking.

 

(41) QUOTEAria on the dogs howling ‘in all possible voices’.

 

Completely soaked and 'muddy as a hog', Chichikov looks around the room into which he has rushed. It's appearance makes ‘his eyes feel sticky’: fading striped wall paper, pictures of birds, mirrors with curled frames, a wall clock with flowers painted on the face (which hisses and wheezes when it decides to strike, sounding like a pot banged with a stick) … Chichikov is too exhausted to do much  snooping, but he looks behind the mirrors, where he finds a letter, old playing cards and a stocking.  (The mistress  has had a candle burning at her icon all night.)


The mistress is described as a 'little dearie', one of those small landowners who fret over losses but save roubles in little bags in a chest which holds an unpicked coat that will later be turned into a dress if the one she is wearing ever wears out. None of her neighbors have more than twenty serfs apiece so Chichikov figures he is deep in the backwater. When asked about Sobakovitch or Manilov, Korobochka says she has never heard of them and therefore doubts they really exist. She is, though, quite hospitable. She orders her serf Fetinya to clean all of Chichikov's clothes, right down to the underwear. Fetinya collects his clothes, brings in a feather bed which leaks feathers all over, and then the mistress offers to rub his back or scratch his feet, but Chichikov  demurs. Her name is Korobochka, which means ‘little box’: Nastasya Petrovna Korobochkov, widow of a collegiate secretary.

 

(44-45) QUOTE The next morning  Chichikov awakens in his altogether but covered with flies, one of which he has inhaled into his nose. He sneezes and a turkey cock, outside the window, looks in and starts gobbling at him, probably saying "God Bless you!" Chichikov looks out the window on to the poultry garden and watches as a sow eats one of the chicks while gobbling watermelon rinds. Beyond is a vast kitchen garden with several scarecrows. The peasants’ huts he sees are not dilapidated, and Chichikov concludes, “It’s no little bit of an estate she’s got here.” At least 80 souls!  From then on Chichikov addresses Widow Korobochka with respect.


At breakfast, the Widow Korobochka pampers Chichikov. She has even dressed herself up a little, and Chichikov feels comfortable enough to speak quite familiarly with her, which is remarkable because the narrator emphasizes that Russian society is supersensitive to the many gradations of rank within the nobility. (47) ARIA on the Russian art of flattery which forces the speaker to metamorphose as he turns from one rank to address another. A Prometheus can turn instantly into a fly!

 

(48-51) Talking Business! The Widow mistakes Chichikov for a tax collector or a buyer, and being a shrewd manager, she offers to sell him honey or hemp. (Her farm also produces buckwheat flour, rye flour, grain and buthchered cattle which the mistress wants to sell to the government.) Chichikov edges towards  broaching his proposal by asking if she has lost any souls since the last census, and the old lady complains about paying bribes to assessors who still tax you on souls even if they are dead. Why, her blacksmith drank so much that he self-immolated! However, when Chichikov offers to purchase these dead souls, the Widow Korobochka simply cannot understand why. She just doesn't get it, but she is sure that Chichikov must be trying to cheat her. “They’re already dead.” “Maybe they’d come in handy around the house on occasion…” (51) “No, no…The bones and graves-- all that stays with you, the transfer is only on paper.” (written down in words, a contract is abstracted one level from reality.)


The Widow Korobochka, concrete Russian soul that she is, cannot grasp the idea that business can be conducted much beyond barter  (which, of course, rejects a basic notion of capitalism: money has the potential to create profit in and of itself.) Although she keeps no records, she knows everyone on her estate by heart, even the dead ones. The value of dead souls can be likened to  the financial commodities that Wall Street brokers have invented in recent years which abstract the value of, say, real estate mortgages to such a degree that a market  in 'derivatives' is possible.

 

(52) Chichikov finally loses his temper. He is so angry that he goes beyond the bounds of all patience and wishes the Devil on her, and the widow is terrified. “Just two nights ago I spent the whole night dreaming about the cursed one… such a nasty one: horns longer than a bull’s.” He tells her to drop dead and then starts lying about how he does government contracting for other farm commodities as well, and the widow gives him a “Why didn’t you say so?” response. She is prepared to sell her dead souls for fifteen roubles. She also thinks she should butter him up with some pancakes.

 

(53) QUOTE ARIA Chichikov opens his Karelian Birch Chest to get the necessary stamped papers to draw up the contract, and the narrator gives a detailed description of its many drawers, particularly the secret one for money and other essential papers that slides open inconspicuously from the side.

 

(54) The widow must dictate to him the names of the dead souls on her estate for she keeps no written records: ‘Cow’s Brick’; ‘Pyotr Saviliev Disrespect-Trough’. Once the deal is done, Chichikov chows on mushrooms, pirozkhi, savory dumplings, cheesecakes, pies with onion, poppy seed, cottage cheese, even smelt fillings, short crust pie with eggs, and pancakes slathered in butter. He exits promising to buy all of her farm commodities, lard and bird feathers as well. Of course, he is lying.

 

(56) ARIA Mrs. Manilova vs. the Widow Korabachka: on the difference between Manilova, the far wealthier Europeanized wife of a landowner, and the Widow Korobochka who is totally concerned with managing the estate. Manilova's face is 'lit by a different light'.

 

(57) The horses have been well groomed, but Selifan is depressed and won’t chat with them as is his wont. (Instead, the narrator lets us know what Assesor thinks about Selifan's talent for stinging him on the ear or belly.) The girl Pelageya, she with the bare muddy legs, is sent along in the britzka to show them the way to the high road, but she does not know her left from right. Even so,  they would not have gotten off the back roads without her. “The roads went crawling in all directions like caught crayfish dumped out of a sack…” Selifan: “Ughh, you black legs!”

 

Chapter 4 (59-87) Nozdryov

 

Chichikov stops at the tavern on the high road to rest the horses and fortify himself with a snack.

 

(59) ARIA on the stomach of this sort of middling traveler, not the rich, high sort who sits around in St. Petersburg popping pills before swallowing sea spiders and oysters… No, the middling sort of gentleman who can feast at successive stations on  ham, then sturgeon, then baked sausage with onions and then can sit down to a full course dinner when he arrives at home. Many Russians would sacrifice half of their wealth to have such a stomach.

 

(60) Inside the tavern Chichikov finds the friends one would expect to find in a wooden Russian tavern: hoary samovars, pinewood walls, a triangular corner cupboard with Easter eggs hanging from red and blue ribbons, a cat with kittens, a mirror reflecting four eyes and a pancake face,  icons bestrewed with dried out aromatic herbs. “Do you have suckling pig?”

 

(61) The waitress whom Chichikov questions distinguishes simply between Sobakevich and Manilov. The former eats all of one dish, the latter samples everything.

 

(62-65) A troika arrives carrying Nozdryev and his son in law Mizhuev. Nozdryev enters and immediately launches into a tirade about losing his whole wad while gambling with officers from a dragoon regiment at the fair. (His name means nozdrya- nostril.) Nozdryev regales Chichikov with his drinking exploits (seventeen bottles of champagne!) and his ‘strawberrying’. He laughs at Chichikov’s plans to visit Sobakevich and insists instead that he come visit his own estate. He orders his lackey Porfiry to bring in the bulldog puppy to show Chichikov.

 

(68-70) Nozdryev described. He is a rollicksome boon companion who behaves the same at the age of 35 that he did when he was 18: a great carouser who never stops talking.  People like him strike up acquaintances quickly, they have a passion for a little game of cards, they cheat and get cheated and then thrash the other fellow or get thrashed, finally making up as if nothing happened. “He lies absolutely without need.” He has a passion for doing dirt to others and then insisting he was just kidding and should still be treated as a friend. He is a compulsive spender, buying whatever he fancies: he has a passion for trading as well: a gun, a dog, a horse, even if he gains nothing from the deal. He just loves the action. “He is among us everywhere.”

 

(70-71) Nozdryev’s manor is in constant, confused uproar. The house is being painted.  No preparations for guests have been made, no food is planned for dinner, and he drags his guests on a muddy tour of the whole estate, bragging (and lying) about everything he sees: bay stallions, wolf cubs, all sorts of dogs, busted water mills, plentiful rabbits, etc.

 

(73) In his study there are no books, but plenty of sabers, guns, a Turkish dagger incorrectly engraved… and a barrel organ he picked up in some card game which grinds out “Marlborough Went Off to War”.

 

(74) Dinner is awful- mostly non-stop rounds of port, ho-sauterne, madeira (laced with rum), and rowanberry liqueur (spiked with moonshine). His son-in-law succumbs to the booze and goes home despite Nozdryev’s derision: “You foozle!”

 

(76-77) Nozdryev tries to talk Chichikov into a little hand of cards, and Chichikov instead makes him his business proposition. Nozdryev insists that Chichikov explain why he wants dead souls. “You want to finger each bit of trash and sniff it besides?” Chichikov evades answering completely: he says he wants 'to acquire weight in society’; he says, “I have a mind to get married." Nozdryev rejects all these explanations as "Lies! Lies!" and  suggests hanging Chichikov for his brazen ness

 

(78-79) Nozdryev refuses to sell unless one of his horses or his dogs or his broken down britzka is thrown into the deal. He even offers his barrel organ.

 

(81) When Chichikov refuses to play cards with him again, Nozdryev screams, “The hairy devil is what you will get!” He gets up and walks out, and Chichikov realizes that he was mistaken to argue with such a man. This kind of guy could prove a nuisance in the future.

 

(82-85) The next morning the host appears looking like someone a barber’s signboard would NOT feature. He insists that Chichikov play checkers with him for the dead souls. In the midst of the game Nozdryev gets caught cheating, and when he is called on it, he orders his servants to beat Chichikov.

 

ARIA on martial fervor of a foolhardy officer with the bit between his teeth, leading his soldiers to a trap where they will be blown into the air like swansdown.

 

(86-87) An officer arrives just as Nozdryev is about to lay into Chichikov with his cherrywood chibouk. He is put under arrest for beating another local landowner with birch rods, and Chichikov makes a run for it.



Chapter 5 (88-109) Sobakevich 


Chichikov escapes, his heart fluttering like a quail in a cage. Selifan complains about the way that Nozdryev mistreated his horses (No oats!).

Suddenly. the britzka nearly collides with another coach speeding down a hill, and the traces of the horses are entangled. In the other coach, Chichikov spies a golden haired beauty whose face is fresh as a round egg. Two muziks happen by and try unsuccessfully to disentangle the two coaches lines. They give up and the horses do the job themselves.  Chichikov watches as the vision disappears.

(91-92) ARIA about the moments in life when a sense of wonder is aroused by the fleeting appearance of a woman- like muzhiks gaping at a splendid carriage. The moment could be life changing for a youth, but Chichikov takes a pinch of snuff and thinks to himself, "A nice wench!" He proceeds to the logical conclusion that she will wind u of a respectable woman. If she had a 200,000 rouble dowry, though, she would be a very tasty morsel.

Why does Gogol include this episode at this moment of Chichikov’s adventures?  

Sobakevich's estate (92-93)
: During the construction the architect had been in constant conflict with the owner over the building plans: pediment not at the center of the house, windows stuck in strange places. Symmetry vs. convenience. The peasants' huts and out buildings are all built to last for ages-- snugly fit.

Sobakevich's face (93-95)
 is round and broad like those Moldavian gourds used to make balalaikas for snappy 20 year old lads. (Sobakevich: sobaka- dog) Sobakevich looks like a medium sized bear. His complexion is of a roasted, hot color, the features hacked out. His drawing room is decorated with portraits of hale and hearty Greek generals and the room is furnished with sturdy and rough-hewn (if uncomfortable) chairs. The furniture all cries out, "I too am Sobakevich." (95) His wife's ribboned bonnet  makes her look like a palm tree. Her hands have been washed in picking brine.

Chichikov compliments the solid citizens of the town, and Sobakevich responds by insulting each in turn: Fool! Bandit! Crook! Even the Governor is a crook (even with his embroidered purses.)

(96-97) The two snack on pickled things and have a shot of vodka then retire to the dining room, seating four, including a woman whom the narrator cannot identify. She is completely non-descript, not an object in the world but an alien speck. They dine on cabbage soup and nyanya (stuffed sheep stomach). Sobakevich complains about all the dishes served in town: they make cat not rabbit and waste food in all those fricassees. It's the fault of those German and French doctors. At his house Sobakevich dines on half a rack of lamb! That's fit for a Russian stomach! After eating a whole roast it’s on to Oysters! Lamb! Cheesecakes! Stuffed turkey! Enough of "Enlightenment"! He declares that he is not like Plyushkin who starves himself and his peasants to death! (Chichikov pricks up his ears.)

(99-102) QUOTE After dinner Chichikov broaches his business proposition! Explaining the notion, he refers to the souls as non-existent not dead. Sobakevich comes right out and says it: "You want dead souls? Sure, I'll sell, at a hundred a piece." (100)


Chichikov responds, "But why so dear... all that's left is a sensually imperceptible sound." Sobakevich is insulted: his souls are "all hale as nuts": Mikheev the cartwright; Cork Stepan the carpenter; Telyatnikov the cobbler; Miliushkin the bricklayer; etc.
"They're all dead now!"
"What about these people now listed as living?  What sort of people are they? Flies, not people. These are a dream."
"No! No! Mikheev was a huge machine. 75 roubles a soul!"
"Why who needs it?"
"You do..." (and Chichikov bites his lip.)
"For you a soul is the same as a stewed turnip..." (102-105)

Sobakevich even stamps on Chichikov's foot, but eventually he agrees to Chichikov's price. While Sobakevich is drawing up the list, Chichikov muses about this landowner who would have been the same if he had been raised anywhere, even Petersburg. His list is perfectly drawn.

Sobakevich insists on a down payment. Chichikov insists on a receipt. (106)
As Chichikov leaves, he is furious at being hustled by a 'devil's pinchfist'. (107)

Leaving the estate, Chichikov asks a muzhik where Plyushkin lives, and the old man has trouble figuring out who that might be until Chichikov reminds him of the patchy one that feeds his serfs poorly. Then the muzhik uses ‘a word’ that can't be printed, and the narrator is embarrassed.

(108-109) QUOTE:  ARIA about the Russian folk's ability to tag a person with a little word that will follow him around for generations. "There is no word so sweeping, so pert, so bursting from beneath the very heart, so ebullient and vibrant with life as an aptly spoken Russian word."

Chapter 6 (110-132) Plyushkin

(110-111) QUOTE: The narrator laments the lost freshness of his youth when every new town he saw, its buildings, a merchants' goods,  it's people: they all filled him with wonder, and he spun imaginative tales about whatever interested him. Now, though, he finds even the unknown trite and boring...

Why does Gogol provide us this anecdote at the beginning of his chapter on Plyushkin?

(111-12) The narrator notes the special dilapidation of Plyushkin's village: log cabins, dark and old, missing shingles and laths. He notes rows of stacked wheat left in the field to rot.

(112) The master's house: “Long, immeasurably long, the strange castle looked like a decrepit invalid.”

(112-13) ARIA on the vast old garden gone to seed: The scale of estate life in the past is indicated by the vast garden, picturesque in its scenic devastation.  A colossal white trunk of a birch rises up to where its crown is broken off. After the heaped up work of man, nature makes a finishing pass.

What is the connection of this symbolic representation of the estate to Gogol’s characterization of Plyushkin?

(114-15) QUOTE: Chichikov mistakes the master for a female housekeeper. The drawing room's furniture is piled up, papers are stacked everywhere. The clock has stopped: spider webs cover the pendulum. A chandelier is covered with a hemp sack, like a silkworm's cocoon.

(116-17) QUOTE The master identifies himself, to Chichikov's shock. He has small darting eyes like a mouse looking for a cat. Yet he owns more than a thousand souls, huge amounts of wheat and flour, now stacked and rotting. His workshop is fully equipped but idle. All the master does is packrat around the estate making sure that no one is stealing from him.

(118-19) The story of Plyushkin's demise: the death of his wife, the elopement of his daughter. His son joins the military, and Plyushkin then descends into lonely avarice: a devil not a man. Yet the estate still functions and Plyushkin dumps all he can into store rooms.

(120-21) QUOTE Gogol's narrator suggests that such a fate may await even the most festive manor.

(123) Chichikov goes to work, and Plyushkin is speechless. His visitor must be completely stupid.

(124-25) Ploshka is summoned and before entering puts on the one pair of boots the house servants are allowed. He is sent off to get stale kulich to serve his guest.

(126) QUOTE Plyushkin gives Chichikov the list of dead souls: peasant names covering the page thick as gnats. He remembers the old magistrate in town with whom he was once friends and ‘some warm ray suddenly passed over his face’, the ‘pale reflection of a feeling’. It is like a drowning man surfacing for a moment.

Plyushkin accuses the servant Maria of stealing his one piece of clean writing paper. He says, "The devil will make it hot for you with iron tongs."

He writes with "ink" made from the ‘moldy liquid of dead flies’, his letters resembling musical notes galloping across the page, squeezing line on top of line

ARIA: old age is coming. You can be transformed as Plyushkin has been. Take with you every humane impulse you can Do not leave them by the wayside.

(129-30) Chichikov pays for the souls in cash, and Plyushkin carries the bills to his bureau "as if carrying some liquid, fearing to spill it." There the bills would remain until after he was dead and buried.

(131) Plyushkin thinks of giving Chichikov his pocket watch but then changes his mind. "I'll leave it to him in my will."

Chichikov, meanwhile, is in rapture: 200 dead souls!

(131-32) ARIA on the dusk:  His britzka arrives in town at thick dusk when lights and dark and objects themselves seem to mingle. Fantasies take form in the minds of slim clerks with canes, they are on the make, dreaming of girls, guitars, and curls... but then realize that they are standing on Haymarket Square outside a pothouse.

 

Chapter 7 (133-154) Chichikov's Apex

(133-35) ARIA
Happy the writer who can conceive of characters that manifest the lofty dignity of man', but Gogol is not such a writer. Instead, it is his destiny to 'call forth all that is before our eyes every moment' and we don't see-- all the 'terrible stupendous mire of trivia'; 'inconspicuous insects'. Lofty ecstatic laughter is worthy too. "I am destined to walk hand in hand with my strange heroes." Vision of coming redemption: a fearsome tempest of inspiration will raise the majestic thunder of a different speech... (Of course, that never happened for Gogol, and he destroyed his talent trying to alter his voice.)

(135-36) Chichikov awakens beaming at the happy thought that he owns nearly 400 souls. He jumps out of bed and doesn't even look at himself in mirror to admire his chinny-chin-chin. He puts on his Scottish bathrobe and his moroccan boots with multi-color applique and dances in Scottish fashion around the room. (kicking his butt with his heel). (Apparently, Chichikov likes to act like a Scotsman only when he is alone in his bedroom.) Eventually, he cavorts to his Kirelian chest, draws up the legal papers himself, and then admires the list of the names of his muzhiks. Each name seems to take on a character of its own from the various ways thay have been written down on paper.

(136-139) Chichikov finds these listed names so gratifying that the muzhiks seem to come to life, and he calls out to them, "My heaven, what did you do in your lives, dear hearts...", and his imagination imbues Pyotr Saveliev Disrespect-Trough and Cork Stepan and Maxim Telyatnikov with new life. He fantasizes about how Grigiry Go-Never-Get! was murdered. And what of Plyushkin's runaway souls... Chichikov spins tales about Popov the house servant eventually confronted by a policeman over his missing passport... or Abakum Fyrov: the boatman carousing on the grain wharf after striking a bargain with the grain merchants.

Gogol's point: the length and breadth of Russia comes to life with all of its diversity and soul!

(140) Chichikov changes out of his Scottish bathrobe and sets out for the government offices to execute the deeds and bring the business to a close as quickly as possible... (before the souls evanesce). Enroute to the government building, he runs into Manilov, and "the kisses were so hard on both sides that both men had an ache in their front teeth for almost the whole day." After holding hands for an interminable pause, Manilov delivers his list of souls on a piece of paper tied with a pink ribbon. The two friends link arm in arm and set off for the court house.

(141-42) The grounds of the big three storey government office have been trashed, fences are covered with graffiti, and the interior hallways are no better. The filthty chancellery room is full of paper, bent heads, tailcoats, frock coats, scraps of short phrases, hoarse voices, and the scratching noise of countless pens which sound like carts loaded with brushwood rolling over dry leaves.

(143-44) The clerks try to give Chichikov the run around, but he already is expert in their tricks and promises each one that dealing with his business promptly will be profitable for all. He drops a banknote on the table of one scribbling clerk, who covers it up quickly,  in mid-sentence even.

(144-147) In the Chief Magistrate's office Chichikov is surprised to find Sobakevich already there, behind a zertsalo. (Uh-Oh!) (Zertsalo: The emblem of “law and order” in tsarist Russia that had to stand on the desk in courts and other institutions.) (This is interesting because the last we heard from Sobakevich, he was referring to all the city officials, including the Chief Magistrate as swinmdlers and crooks.) Everyone embraces and loudly kisses one another. They compete in self-effacement and compliments. Chichikov must have the proper witnesses and legal representatives, so the room grows full of sycophants looking for a hand out. His acquisitions are now worth nearly 100,000 roubles, and everyone is duly impressed. Things get a tad dicey for Chichikov when Sobakevich tells the Chief Magistrate to ask Chichikov just  what he has been acquiring, but he gets carried away bragging about the peasants he has sold and forgets to remind himself that they are dead.

(148) The magistrate comments on his surprise  to discover that Chichikov has not purchased land in the area in addition to acquiring peasants. "Or is it for re-settlement?" "But, of course!" And Chichikov invents an estate with a river and a pond which he has acquired in the Kherson province to which he is moving.  A huge crowd of dignitaries and officials arrive to witness the signing of the deeds, and Chichikov is only charged the smallest fee. They conclude the business and then everyone adjourns to the police chief's house to celebrate.

(150-152) The police chief is the 'town benefactor.'  He is a wonder worker who lards the table in his house with beluga, sturgeon, salmon, caviar, herring, cheeses, smoked tongue and balyks from the fish market, then there is fish-head pie, pie with mushroom, fritters, dumplings, and honey-stewed fruit. What a police chief! He shakes down the merchants, but he does it so politely and cheerily! After the appetizer, they all go to lunch. There Sobakevich eats a whoe sturgeon as quickly as he can, after which he can only blink and squint. There are innumerable toasts! Chichikov is invited to stay and marry.

QUOTE Chichikov is so happy that he even begins to believe that he is a real Kherson landowner.
He begins to recite poetry and then realizes that he is beginning to get 'too loose'.  

(153-54) He gets out of there and returns to the inn as his hallucinations grow florid: now he is married to the dimpled blonde. Selifan is ordered to gather all his serfs. He listens silently. As soon as Chichikov is asleep, he and Petrushka wander off to the bar together. They come back blotto. When they pass out, they snore loudly as Chichikov whistles, and QUOTE  a lieutenant from Ryazan tries on boots in a room across town.

Chapter 8 (155-179) The Governor's Ball

(155-57) Gossip! he townspeople hear the news of Chichikov's purchases and his plans to move the serfs to the Kherson Province. Everyone weighs in with an opinion about Chichikov's plans. Is it possible to profit from re-settling serfs? They will run away. The serfs sold to him are thieves and drunkards. They will become vagabonds if uprooted from their land. Good stewards are so hard to come by. A riot might break out. Either harsh discipline or patriarchal solicitude will be necessary. Chichikov thanks his friends for thier advice, but he assures them that the peasants he has brought are placid types and riot among them is impossible.

(158) ARIA on the literary pretensions of the kindly townfolk. The Chief Magistrate loves to recite Zhukovsky's 'Lyudmila.' The post master delves into philosophy and likes to 'rig out' his speech. Most of the others are 'slug-a-beds'. They are seemly and use affectionate terms with each other like 'chubsy', 'tubsy', 'zhuzhu' and 'kiki'. And everyone wants to be friends with Chichikov. Particularly, the ladies!

(159)  QUOTE The narrator initially finds himself too timid to talk about the ladies of the town, but then somehow he goes on at length about how 'presentable' they are. Their primary concern is keeping up with the fashions from St. Petersburg and Moscow; their lives are full of carriage rides, visiting cards, and the like. They never neglect a visit! But when quarrels arise, they inspire their husbands, not to duel, but instead to do each other dirt whenever possible. They punish any weakness without mercy, but 'this or that' is always overlooked. "It's always fair weather when frineds get together." They observe prudence and propriety by using circumlocutions  which abstract behavior out of reality. "This glass is being naughty." They banish most Russian words as too gross for polite conversation, but they give themselves permission to say the coarsest expressions... in French.

(160) They consider Chichikov 'a millionaire'-- a special status inspiring the most egregious flattery even if without hope of corresponding reciprocation. Chichikov's attractiveness inflates. "He is not fat, but if he were any fuller or taller, it would not be so good." His anticipated precense inspires a run on the expensive fabrics at local stores to supplement party dresses. At church, a police inspector has makes sure that no one steps on the huge rouleaus.

(161) One anonymous admirer even writes Chichikov a love letter! "No, I must write to you!" and full of such poetry! Chichikov folds this letter and puts it away in his chest.

(162) Chichikov prepares for the Governor's Ball (!!!)  by spending a full hour on his toilette. He practices his bow before the mirror and makes vaguely French sounds (although he knows no French). He is so happy that he performs an entrechat in the air!

(163) His entry at the ball produces quite an effect! He is greeted by all and 'feels himself simultaneously in several embraces'. The governor even drops his puppy and a candy-kiss motto!  ARIA on the fake laugh, even if the joke told by the Very Important Person is not fully heard.  The ladies surround Chichikov with fragrances. Theihr attire evinces no end of taste: ribbons, bows, bouquets, head dresses, and artfully laced and arranged 'modesties' to accentuate the most alluring details and to hide the actual plump-ness.

(165) Chichikov is nearly overwhelmed by all the feminine pulchritude. "There the province goes scrawling!" He is trying to search out the face of 'the one' who wrote him that letter! Chichikov waxes poetic about the mysterious allure of women and concludes that they are 'the cockety half of mankind'. ARIA: The narrator apologizes profusely for allowing such a street word to enter his tale. It is a wholly Russian word. He then ridicules the ways that Russians throw French, English, and German words into their speech and insist that Russian itself be more refined than it possibly can be.

(167) QUOTE Chichikov's Apotheosis: While continuing his search for the one, he starts mincing with small rapid steps among the ladies, and they find that so charming! That little scrape with his foot he makes in the form of a comma! How majestic he appears!

(168-72) The Tide Turns... Chichikov is so swept up in the moment that he forgets to pay due obeisance to the governor's wife. "So that's how you are!" And when Chichikov turns to greet her, he is stunned to discover her daughter: that 16 yr. old blonde, the same girl he met on the road. He is so abashed that he is unable to say a single word. He tries to think of something witty, but nothing comes out. ARIA: The man who leaves home and then recalls that he has forgotten something but cannot recall what.... Look at his face.  The ladies glide by hoping to draw his attention, with that one special feature that men find irresistable, but Chichikov is not biting. He is totally focused on the blonde, working up the courage to go talk to her. Could it be love? Chichikov makes his poetic assault (telling her about all of the fascinating people he has met in his travels), but sadly the blonde does not laugh wildly at his every word. And Chichikov goes on and on and on... She begins to yawn, and all the ladies notice. Some things are unforgivable, and Chichikov's predeliction for the school girl offends them all. What a slut! And him?! It must have been he who made up that tasteless poem about the dancers that I heard earlier!

(173) At this moment Nozdryev emerges form the gaming room and instantly spots Chichikov. He screams, "So, have you bought up a lot of dead ones?" He yells to the Governor, "He deals in dead souls!" And then he tries to kiss Chichikov. Everyone stops. Ladies wink at one another. ARIA on the the inability to resist spreading gossip, even the most obvious and banal lie. Chichikov is non-plussed, and he looks for an excuse to make his exit while Nozdryev starts grabbing at dresses during the dancing.

(176-77) The gaiety continues as an officer offers a lady some sauce on the tip of his bare sword, but Chichikov's night is ruined. He goes home, railing against balls. He wonders why he even cares now that  the main business has been properly done. But he is still frustrated and vents his spleen on Nozdryev and all his ancestors.

(177-78) QUOTE Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a strange vehicle, 'a round fat-cheeked watermelon on wheels',  stuffed with pillows looking like cheesecakes, dumplings and doughnuts, chicken and mince pie on top, clattered into town. A sleepy sentinel is awakened, raising his halberd briefly, but the rattletrap coach travels on, arriving at the inn to discharge the Widow Korobochka, who has arrived to find out the going rate for dead souls.

Chapter 9 (180-199) Gossip!

(180-190) (Before relating this story, the narrator goes to great lengths to avoid identifying by name the two ladies satarized in this episode, but he winds up telling us exactly who they are anyway. He just can’t help himself!) A simply agreeable lady has heard incredible news about Chichikov, so she rushes off to her best friend, the lady agreeable in all aspects!  When she gets there, the two ladies get side-tracked into a discussion of the latest fashions from Moscow: Are padded out farthingales respectable?... What about flounces with little festoons?  Hey, you mean you are not going to share that dress pattern with me! You are sharing it with your REAL friend, Praskovya Fyodorovna! Humph!

 

(184) Finally, they get around to the main topic: that little charmer, Chichikov. The Widow Korobochka's horror story has gotten around: it's Chichikov, that Rinaldo Rinaldini type brigand who descends on defenseless ladies in the middle of the night to demand that you sell him all your souls! What's it all about? Neither Anna nor Sofya has the faintest idea, but that doesn't prevent them from speculating that Chichikov is here... (Sofya pricks up her ears like a hunter transformed into gun powder (187)) to run off with the governor's daughter! How insufferably affected that girl is. A statue! A coquette! It simply cannot be that there were no accomplices. Ha! Nozdryev! That simply must be true (and so they are convinced, just as scholars are convinced of the truth of their outlandish theories (190-91))

In less than half an hour, gossip spreads like wild fire and arouses the town to a fever pitch of excitement . The town officials are dumbfounded (like that school boy at the moment when he was suddenly wakened from sleep when he snorted  a load of snuff  from a 'hussar' that his classmates had stuck up his nose while he was asleep). (191-92))

No one can figure it out! Why buy dead souls? What does the governor's daughter have to do with it? A whirlwind rushes through town, awakening all the sluggards and sloths who have not been heard from in years. They come out from under their rocks. Stories circulate about  Chichikov's plans to abduct the girl. Her mother gets wind of the talk and subjects her daughter to the most disagreeable interrogation any 16 yr. old has ever been forced to suffer. She claims that she doesn't know what her mother is talking about. The hussy! The gossip even penetrates the slum alleys of the lower depths. Everyone is talking!

(195) The townsmen focus on the dead souls angle and fear that Chichikov may be a government inspector who has come to their town INCOGNITO!! After all  a new governor-general for the oblast has just been appointed! And the dead souls may be connected to a recent unsolved murder case involving the missing Solvychegodsk merchants who got into a fight with the merchants from Ustsysolsk, one of whose noses was stove-in entirely! Or maybe it has to do with the that peasant Lousy Arrogance and his buddies who murdered that town official Drobyazhkin in the hamlet of Cockyville! (He had apparently been eyeing the local women and girls...) So those must be the dead souls in question!

(197) A-ha! Those local criminals must be involved, that forger and that other robber who got away from the next province-- they must be one in the same: Chichikov!

But when Korobochka, Manilov and Sobakevich are interrogated, they mostly stand up for Chichikov, and Petrushka and Selifan can offer nothing more than rumors about Chichikov working in the customs office at one point and, of course, thier foul smell.

There is nothing for it. A general meeting is called at the police chief's house.

Chapter 10 (200-220) The Meeting at the Police Chief's Home

How strange! All the officials seem to have grown thinner over night! That is, except for the postmaster who has had his job for thirty years. "That's fine for you, Sprechen zee Deutche Ivan Andreich! Well, you don't have Praskovya Fyodorovna to deal with!"

(201) Gogol on the prospects of representative government in Russia: We can't even organize charitable funds without spending all the money collected for meeting party supplies!

A-ha! The postmaster declares that Chichikov is no other than the legendary Captain Kopeikin ('kopeck'), the disabled war vet who got an arm and a leg blown off in Napoleonic war! He went to St. Petersburg to petition the tsar for imperial charity. (St. Petersburg! That Semiramis! That Babylon!) He waited for hours at a time to petition a very important minister but was told to come back later, so the Captain went off on a spree and spent all the rest of his money. When he returned to the court, he was put off again and again until he in despair he confronted the Very Important Person in public and would not leave until his case had been addressed. The minister backed down and agreed to help, but the Captain is last heard of leading a band of brigands that hides out deep in the forests.  Of course, someone reminds the postmaster that Chichikov has both arms and legs, so he cannot be Captain Kopeikin.

Next theory: Chichikov must be Napoleon in disguise! Evidence? A bast clad prophet wearing a smelly sheepskin has declared that Napoleon, the Anti-Christ in person, has escaped from his island prison and is loose somewhere in the Russian hinterlands!

The officials decide to interrogate Nozdryev. (What are you going to do? Russians don't beleive in God, but they are full of superstitions!)  Nozdryev promptly confirms all their suspicions! Yes! Chichikov is the forger! Yes! He tried to elope with the governor's daughter. I was even present at their wedding! Yes! He is Captain Kopeikin! Yes! He is also Napoleon in disguise! Eventually, Nozdryev's lies become so transparent that everyone gives up and just walks away.

(213) Meanwhile, the town's chief prosecutor goes home and dies!

Chichikov himself has been recovering from a cold for the past three days by drinking warm milk with figs in it. Finally feeling a bit better, he goes out on his usual rounds and discovers that he is no longer welcome among the best society. Uh-oh! Time to skedaddle!



Chapter 11 (221-253) Chichikov's Flight/ Russia's Destiny

Chichikov's flight from town is delayed because the horses need shoeing, the wheel needs a new tire, and the front end of the britzka is loose. Furthermore, that dapple grey horse needs to be gotten rid of! Chichikov must resort to threatening Selifan and paying six times the going rate to the blacksmiths to get the britzka fixed. (223) Meanwhile, he must wait for hours... and everything about this town becomes loathsome to him ...

Finally, the britzka is fixed, packed and Chichikov is ready to lam it out of there, but just as the carriage begins to roll, their path is blocked by a long funeral procession for the deceased town prosecutor. Chichikov slumps down and fears being discovered, but none of the town officials in the procession can be bothered to even look. They are all totally concerned with their own lives and with their fears at the prospect of a new governor-general for the province.

(225) ARIA QUOTE  The road! At last the britzka is on the road! (Comparison of Russia and Rome, where Gogol finished the first part of Dead Souls.)  "A horizon without end... Rus! Rus! I see you, from my wondrous beautiful distance I see you: it is poor scattered and comfortless in you..." Not bold wonders of nature crowned by works of art, but "in you all is openly deserted and level; like dots, like specks, your low towns stick up inconspicuously amidst the plains; there is nothing to seduce or enchant the eye. But what inconceivable, mysterious force draws one to you.?"  "What prophecy in this uncompassable expanse? Is it not here, in you, that the boundless thought is born, ... the mighty man is to be born?"

(226-227) QUOTE The road! As Chichikov drowses off to the rumbling of the carriage wheels, Gogol describes the sensations of travel: slipping out of consciousness only to return towns later with a new moon in the sky, "with fields and steppes before you, nothing anywhere- everywhere emptiness, all wide open... God! how good you are sometimes, you long road!"

(228-247) Again, Gogol apologizes for having written a book about such a scoundrel! We then discover Chichikov's true history. How did he wind up this round, soft servant of the devil?
  • Earliest memories? An infirm father shuffling about, spouting maxims and twisting his ear....then a long ride in a wagon, drawn by a pitiful, piebald magpie, to a new home where a wobbly old realtive is to care for him as he goes to school. His father's parting advice? Please your superiors and remember, a kopeck will never betray you... 
  • Chichikov exhibits no special abilities in school, except for his knack at coming up with ways to make money: a bullfinch out of wax, a trained mouse. He excels also at flattering his teacher: feeling no compunction about sucking up to him in any way possible. 
  • When he learns that his father is dead and has left him no inheritance, Chichikov must learn how to get along in the world on his own. On his first job, working for the treasury in a remote provincial town, he seduces his superior by toadying to him with unctuous flattery and shameless sycophancy: sharpening his pens, holding his hat, brushing off his coat, romancing his daughter (whose face looks as if peas have been threshed on it). He is promoted! And the flattery halts immediately. 
  • He becomes a man of note and masters the art of getting around recent anti-corruption laws by publicly refusing bribes ("No. No. I... no, no, no...") but denying service until his assistants have been paid off. He also gets on the commission to raise funds to build a new government building and winds up with a new house himself with a cook and some fine new Holland shirts. 
  • A new superior takes charge in the office, and Chichikov's star falls. He must move to a new town and start a new career. He does so in the customs office! He makes a name for himself as a relentless investigator, turning up illegal merchandise in the strangest of places, until he is promoted to supervisor. Then he goes into business! Arranging the smuggling of commodities like Brabant lace, he makes enormous sums until he falls out with his corrupt colleague (over calling him 'a parson's son') and the whole operation collapses. 
  • Able to buy himself out of a prison sentence, Chichikov still must move on again. This time he reinvents himself as a lawyer who scents out opportunities in cases of refinancing mortgages where DEAD SOULS are counted among the assets of bankrupt landowners seeking new rates. He resolves to raise capital himself in the same way and dreams of establishing a fake town, Chichikov Hamlet, where he will relocate his expired souls!

"Everything transforms quickly in man; before you can turn around, a horrible worm has grown inside him, despotically drawing all life's juices to itself." (247)

Again, Gogol apologizes for exposing human poverty. Wouldn't you prefer to just ignore it and talk about something else? Why not let the whole thing slide until it is too late? What will our patriots say? Gogol tells the tale of Kifa Mokievich, the philosopher obsessed with considering the nature of man in his naked state, whose son Moky Kifovich has become the local town bully. What is he to do? Mokievich resolves that it won't be him who betrays his son! But the author has a duty to the sacred truth! Isn't there a bit of Chichikov in you and me?

(252-53) QUOTE  Chichikov tells Selifan to get a move on, and the whip flies, and the britzka lurches into motion. Final image of the novel: "Ah, troika! bird troika, who invented you?... the steeds go like the wind, the spokes of the wheels blend to a smooth disc, the road simply shudders, and the passerby stops and cries out in flight-- there she goes, racing, racing, racing! ... And you, Rus! are you not like a brisk, unbeatable troika racing on?.... what is the meaning of this horrific movement? and what unknown force is hidden in these steeds unknown to the world? .... Rus, where are you racing to ? Give answer! She gives no answer. Wondrously the harness bell dissolves in ringing, the air rumbles, shattered to pieces, and turns to wind; everything on earth flies by, and, looking askance, other nations step aside to make way."

Gogol's point? Russia possesses a special destiny (the Third Rome) because there alone, not in wealthy Europe, the humble reality and precarious fragility of humanity can be clearly apprehended. Even here, the Devil angles for the humblest souls.